


phantom butterflies

by schnaf



Series: im-prompt-u challenge [6]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, but i guess now is a bad time to finally start, good morning this is a 3am post, maybe i should use the tags sometime to actually describe the story, my head didn't want to let me sleep before i posted this, so here we go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 07:34:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schnaf/pseuds/schnaf
Summary: Dan still got butterflies in his stomach when he sees Phil. But what if they're only phantom butterflies?
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: im-prompt-u challenge [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969618
Comments: 10
Kudos: 18
Collections: Im-PROMPT-u Phandom Creator Challenge 2020





	phantom butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> i was super proud of myself for finishing today's fic right in the morning. ... well, that's when i realized i actually wrote tomorrow's prompt. aaaAAAAAAH. it turned into a midnight fic instead. well, better luck next time, i guess. (but i could use some inspo from my writing tag and that never happens. also, shortly after i started writing, i had the exact same quote on my dashboard that inspired the fic. that was creepy as heck.)

It's strange to see Phil again. Dan knew he'd be here, he knew Phil got invited to this party too - he actually didn't think too much about it, it was just a random piece of information, just as important as knowing about the food that would be served at the party. Nice to know but not really relevant.

Well, that's what Dan thought until he saw Phil again, until he spotted him next to the bar, talking to someone Dan doesn't know, laughing, and damn, he still looks so familiar.

So many years have passed and still, Phil's face is familiar.

Maybe it would have been yet another snippet, yet another random piece of information, filed unter 'interesting but not really'. Actually, Dan forgot about it as soon as some guy chatted him up, asking about his current project. But after a bit of small talk and a few samples from the buffet, Dan decided to go outside. There's a giant roof terrace and in the beginning, he wasn't the only one to flee the apartment. Only when the sun went down and it got colder, most of the other guests returned to the indoors cosiness , leaving only a bunch of smokers crowded next to the door.

And Dan. He isn't too keen on yet another round of small talk so he decided to stick around, facing the cold.

That's when he remembered his little encounter.

Phil... His ex. Or - is he? He never got to call him his boyfriend. But he was an ex-something, an ex-maybe. An ex-almost.

Dan sighs, he buries his face in his hands. Ever since he got outside, since he got away from the pressure to converse, he just can't stop thinking about Phil. About the butterflies he had whenever they met in the past. About the little phantom butterflies that appeared when he spotted Phil before, a relic from a long gone time. About... The past.

It could have been a love story - who knows, maybe it already counted as a love story. They were in love, that's for sure - oh, Dan was so, so in love but he's pretty sure Phil reciprocated his feelings.

And then, one day, it was over, just like that. When they couldn't just keep floating, when they had to make a decision, when they had to commit. They couldn't, they both couldn't, they weren't ready for commiting to a relationship. So instead, they had to part ways.

Damn, he really thought he was okay with it. Well, of course he wasn't all the time - the first few weeks without Phil were terrible and Dan vividly remembers the pain, the heartbreak, the regrets. But slowly, things got better. Lovewise... not exactly better, after all, nothing has happened since they said goodbye. Still, he was happy, still, he was content.

But what if he had taken the plunge back then? What if he had been able to commit to Phil?

Well, Phil wasn't able to commit, either. But maybe he would have been if Dan had taken the first step.

"Hey." A soft voice interrupts his thoughts and all of a sudden, there’s a hand on his lower back. As Dan lifts his head, he can see that someone has joined him at the balustrade. If it was a regular person, someone he didn’t know, he’d be way too close, but -

It isn’t someone regular. It's Phil.

"Hey." Dan replies. The phantom butterflies are back.

But....

Maybe they aren’t phantom butterflies, maybe they’re just butterflies, still alive, alive again.

Maybe it's not too late.


End file.
